DUPR names Ho Chi Minh City as first Asia headquarters amid Vietnam surge

DUPR has planted its first Asia headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City, a move that shows Vietnam is no longer just a fast-rising pickleball market, but a base from which the sport’s ratings, tournaments, and player pathways across the region can be managed.

The timing fits the numbers. DUPR said Vietnam ranks among its top five countries worldwide by users and is currently its fastest-growing market month over month. The company now says it operates in 183 countries, has logged more than 10 million matches, and serves more than 12,000 clubs globally, giving the Vietnam launch the feel of an operating shift, not a ceremonial office opening. COO Kevin Kim attended an official signing and inauguration ceremony in Vietnam on April 24, underscoring that the hub was already active by the time DUPR announced the headquarters on April 29.

Vietnam’s pull has been building for months. A June 2025 UPA Asia and YouGov study found that 88% of respondents in Vietnam had heard of pickleball, 37% had tried it, and the country led Asia in both awareness and participation. That same research showed pickleball awareness and participation spreading across 12 Asian markets, while DUPR’s own reporting has identified Malaysia and Vietnam as the region’s fastest-growing countries. Vietnam alone posted a 30% increase in DUPR players over 90 days and 184% growth in 2025, figures that help explain why Ho Chi Minh City became the natural choice for a regional base.

The bigger business change lies in DUPR’s deepened partnership with DJOY. DUPR said it will be the exclusive rating system across all DJOY events worldwide, which gives players, coaches, and tournament organizers a single standard as athletes move between academies, local competitions, and higher-level play. DUPR also said it will provide advanced analytics for DJOY Tour Legs 1, 2, 3, and Masters, extending its role from branding into player tracking and competition structure. That matters for clubs trying to benchmark talent and for event operators trying to build sanctioned ladders that can feed into the wider Asian circuit.

The player pipeline is already visible in DUPR’s Asia rankings. As of April 13, 2026, Quang Duong and Jonathan Truong were tied at No. 2 on the Asia men’s doubles list, with more Vietnamese players inside the top 50. With earlier partnership work already in place through UPA Asia and the Asia Pickleball Association, DUPR’s Ho Chi Minh City hub looks less like a regional outpost than a central office for a sport now treating Asia as core territory.